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I'm a work in progress and working on Grace and for that, I'm thankful. For without, my Faith wouldn't be what it is, I wouldn't be In Love with Christ and I wouldn't be Filled with the Holy Spirit. We live in a fallen world where dry seasons occur, however, these have been necessary to get and keep me on His Path. Many were not within my control but some were and through REPENTANCE, our Father has restored me and I have been forgiven and my heart changed.

Perseverance, Preservation and Patience..First, Perseverance!

More than that, we rejoice
in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance
produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to
shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit
who has been given to us.

I’m
back. First, I’ve missed blogging and I’ve
missed y’all. Since I’ve last written,
my dear husband and I have traveled to Belize and are still investigating what
God has for us there. We loved the
people, the culture, and the lack of material competitiveness but didn’t like
the huge bumps and huge dips in the road (sounds like life, huh?). And as we all know, those had to be put there
because too many people went speeding through beautiful Ambergris Caye (look at
the shallow water to the from the view from the plane) at one time.

But my goodness, near the middle of our
investigation or God’s Leading, our backs literally cringed and I’m sure it
showed as it did on others passing by on their own rental golf carts. That’s us in what was such a cute golf cart
and it was…at first, for the first few days.

So, our first priority upon moving there would be to purchase a golf
cart with shocks, great shocks. I now love shocks and notice them in every
vehicle I drive or ride in. Renting
a golf cart is not on my bucket list unless God puts in there and then I will
gladly enjoy the bumps and dips. Perseverance.That’s how much we loved Belize!
I bought these head bands where the non-elastic part spreads out over
the top of your head to protect it from the sun. I have a very colorful one, a
light pink and a light blue one and I thank God every time I wear it, normally
on a Friday which is more casual at work.
I really don’t understand my love for Belize but I pray we’ll go
back.

The people love each other, loved
us and there is a group or culture that came from Africa that they dropped part
of the family off there on the island and took the other part of the family up
to Honduras or somewhere else. Very sad
stories. But these ladies wear these
very simple outfits and they dance and sing beautifully from Africa. They are considered Creole. I taught a few of
the children there French while I got my hair French braided upper right. We stayed at a wonderfully cozy place off the
main street called Mayflower Casita.
Colorful, peaceful and the best part of all was the owner, Karen, owns a
Rottweiler named Trinity. We knew we
were supposed to be there. The little
casita was decorated very well for an island getaway.

There was an AC unit in the bedroom. We left pretty quickly after we got up to
beat the mosquitos and start our discovery journey every day. We saw the underside of the island where
mom’s work two jobs and live in cardboard homes and then we saw the nice places
as well. There are other issues that God
showed us as well. We didn’t relax a lot
but it wasn’t supposed to be a relaxing trip.
I’ll share with you as we keep Belize on the forefront. Another part of the trip that was interesting
for me were the puddle jumpers, called airplanes, albeit, small ones. When I got the first one, I was okay, the
views were spectacular. The second one
that took us to the eco-village, was a little rougher and I suddenly got panicky,
not sure why. The trip back, I took some
airsick meds and sat in a different seat.
Perseverance.
You see, you wouldn’t consider going to Belize and Perseverance even remotely going together but
you can above, we encountered areas where we prayed. We prayed every day for the children who were
left alone while the parents worked jobs, questionable jobs just to pay for
their children to attend school on the island.
Even people here were asking us if we were going alone. We hadn’t thought of any other option. We never felt afraid. Take our second challenge, although a good
one, when we decided to purchase investment property. Perseverance. We haven’t purchased a home in
almost 10 years and wow, the paperwork has tripled and there was a lot
then. We have been sending an arm here,
an eye there, a finger over here, a thumb copy only over there…it never stops,
although I think we’re done sending paperwork for now Justin is excited and the house is really
cute and in a very nice neighborhood. Sometimes
it seems like the government wants evidence of how often we take restroom
breaks. Are they the government, the
banks or are they the same? Then, because
of some temporary circumstances beyond our control, our memories are not what
they were. especially my braces. I’ve
found that I have an allergy or something to metals. I now get my braces tightened every 3 weeks
instead of 4 so that I can get them off faster.
This last time, they were trying to move one of my canine teeth (sorry,
but does that make any one of you feel like a dog because I feel like one whenever they say that word?). This precious woman who tightens my teeth
has a child that was born with health problems and she just smiles with joy for
the Lord. I love seeing her, we pray for
each other and I’m committed to 3 week tightening and the side effects of the
metal which include exhaustion, memory loss and that is just a few. This last time, after she was done, my teeth
wouldn’t come together and the teeth they were focused on moving felt like
marshmallows. But it will be worth
it. My teeth talk back to me, yelling,
“WHY ARE YOU BOTHERING WITH ME?” Can we say
Perseverance? Moving right along, yesterday morning, my
darling daughter and I were talking and she is including this bride emoji and I’m
thinking, “huh” and my teeth are thinking “girl, you are not going to be mother
of the bride with this metal in your mouth.”
So, I casually call her. You know
how hard it is to “casually” call your daughter about getting married? Let’s put it this way. I should never play poker, which I don’t. But I held it in, which I’ve had to a lot
lately with things for various reasons. Perseverance. Wait, that really isn’t
perseverance now that I think about it…that is called building character and
learning to talk to God and keeping things private about those you love. My darling husband to whom I deeply submit
everyday (okay, I’m a work in progress but I yearn to submit 100%) reminded me
of that last night. Moving on to the
bunch of life stuff, the wedding is May 25th next year. Yay! I’m
happy for her and my future son-in-law…at least my top braces will be off. Yay!
But my bottom ones won’t be but you don’t see those. Now, if I wanted to, I could start with the
following…who is going to walk her down the aisle, her Dad’s or her Dad? Is she going to get everything done on
time? Will everything match? Blah, blah, blah…As you can see, this will be
about Perseverance?
I have a dear friend who recently gave birth to beautiful
twin boys, Jace and Gavin at 24 weeks old, while they were on a short
vacation. They are 2 states away from
their home and have been living in a Ronald McDonald House for about 2.5 months
now. The boys are a true miracle, His
Miracle and it is very obvious in their growth and every day. Mom and Dad are homesick but get this, God
put them in the #3 Neonate Hospital in the country in a small town about 2.5
hours away from my family, where my younger brother and his bride, who are
writers, computers digital artists, missionaries, homeschoolers and my brother
is a leader in his community church has gone pray over them twice now. My beautiful parents have visited them
now. So thankful that they are close to
my family. They see their boys every 3
hours around the clock and have Touch Time for 3 hours a day each and that is
getting longer. The boys were born at 1
pound each and now are 3 pounds. There
have been complications and the road will be long but through many prayers, God
has brought them through and Mom and Dad have a true testimony to share. There are fundraisers planned and a benefit
account set up as well as the bills continue to mount. We love them so much. They both work with us at Texas Tech and
Brooke works in our group and there isn’t anything we wouldn’t do for those boys! My husband worked in the Neonate Unit for
over 25 years in Amarillo so he visited them to and prayed over them and helped
explained things to Brooke. Things are overwhelming for them right now but they are Persevering. I have learned that for me,
even though these last months since I got my braces and other things have
happened, there have been many times that I’ve thought, “I can’t handle one more
thing”, that one more thing happens, in fact, several things happen and life goes on. In
fact, the world keeps turning, your inbox continues to fill up, the bills keep coming,
the grass keeps growing, the rain keeps falling, the Emails keep coming and
somehow, someway, you keep going. Is it
really just somehow or someway? Is it
luck? Is it a good night’s sleep? Is it the new ZZZ liquid you found at the
store? No. It’s the Holy Spirit carrying you through
those moments when your human vessel is tired, too tired to move, too tired to
breath. How did Paul move on after being
beaten or after being thrown in jail, continue to write? Or when your depression gets worse, how do
you get out of bed for work? Or how do
this Mom and Dad continue when a doctor comes in with news they didn’t want to
hear? Or how do they get up when they
are so tired? It’s because God brought
them two little miracles who can’t wait to see their Mom and Dad. Or when God tells you to go to Belize and the
idea doesn’t formulate right away? It is
the Holy Spirit. And it builds Character
and Faith and Hope. God is preparing us
for something bigger and better. He is Pruning
us. He needs to know that we can endure
anything and Lean totally into Jesus and not worry because He gave us Gifts
that He needs us to use to bring others to Him.
Worry comes from the enemy.
Worrying is another form of control.

Worrying isn’t going to
change the outcome. It will only deteriorate
your health, distract your quality of life and increase your negativity and
keep you away from God. And soon you
find yourself talking about nothing but what you are worried about. I find myself talking to God about anything
and everything that is going on and asking him to take it. Even if I have to write it down and
physically put it in a corner. If you
are a visual person, this may be more effective for you. But He is standing right next to you, ready
to listen. He already knows the outcome,
it is His outcome. As it says in Psalm 139:14, I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully
made: marvelous are thy works; and that my soul
knoweth right well. You are fearfully
and wonderfully made!! He knew
the number of hairs on your head before you born. Give the control to Him. Let me put it the way it hit home with
me. I was trying to box him in. Like, “God, you really don’t know what’s
going on.” He is the great I AM!! In Exodus 3:14 God said to Moses,
"I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has
sent me to you.'" But that is what we do whenever we try to control
or worry. We are saying that we don’t
trust him. We don’t trust the one who
created EVERYTHING! The one who created
ME! YOU!
Meditate on that. Don’t box our
Father in! Release Him and give your
Life. He already has it but you need to
give it to Him totally. You will feel
such Freedom you have never felt. We don’t have to share everything with
everyone. I’m not sharing everything
with you here and keeping names and other details out but want you to know that
I’m not perfect at all, far from it. I’m
going through the same life stuff we all go through. The same stuff that you all wear on your
shoulders, I do too. I thank God every day for the way He has
blessed my life. But when you think you
are alone in your struggles, there is always someone going through worse and
someone who has just gone through what you are going through. Reach out.
Pray. Lean Into Jesus.

Prayers Needed

Surgery
for my brother Jeff-August 11th

Continued
miracles and prayers for the twins Jace and Gavin, pictured below, born 6-8-14
at 24 weeks old

Praying
for families to be reunited…fully. Let
go of past hurts and love in the present

A
heart for an old soul. A mature little
man named Austin Rea named after Steve’s mom who passed last year. His family, whose parents are more in love
as each day passes and his sister is so full of love for the Lord, are split
between two sister as our little man has to be close to the hospital

Clarity
and Vision from the Holy Spirit for Belize

Praises

A
gorgeous little girl born premature is at home healthy and just beautiful with her
mommy and daddy and older sister and doing well. Praise God!!

That
we are allowed to Worship our Father in Heaven openly. Invite someone to church this weekend or to
your home for a devotional or prayer.
They may be waiting for you to ask them.
So Thankful for the gift!